


Somewhere in Egypt...

by BaraLinni



Series: A Most Extensive and Largely Unfinished Yu-Gi-Oh! AU [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-03 07:11:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13336092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaraLinni/pseuds/BaraLinni
Summary: Ryo moves to Egypt and somehow becomes friends with the local punk gang. Oops?





	1. The Doppelgänger

The first time Ryo spotted his doppelgänger, he was almost certain that he was hallucinating from heat stroke. He and his dad had been walking around for hours in the scorching sun, taking in the sights, when suddenly, something improbably white flitted past in Ryo's peripheral vision. When Ryo turned to look, his breath hitched. There, on the other side of the busy road, stood a figure with bright white hair and even brighter white skin that seemed to glow compared to its surroundings. It looked somehow otherworldly, detached from the rest of the crowd. Almost like a... ghost. Ryo licked his lips subconciously. Was he really witnessing an actual apparition? Or was the sun affecting him much more than he had thought?

Just then, the figure turned its head toward Ryo, who would have gasped if he had not been so utterly breathtaken. He stared at the figure, and then quickly averted his eyes, desperately looking for something reflective along the street. What he found was a window, and a quick glance was all he needed for confirmation. He whipped his head around again, searching for the figure, but it was gone. Disappointed, Ryo turned back to his reflection in the window. The face of that figure and Ryo's face were identical. Even from that far away, Ryo could tell instantly. That was  _his_  face. He felt a tingle down his spine as a thought struck him. What if that was... a doppelgänger?

The second time was when his dad sent him grocery shopping. On his own, even though he hardly knew any Arabic and had no idea if people even spoke English in this town, and after the sun had set. He had somehow managed to get through the ordeal of pointing and waving his hands and explaining mundane objects in broken English, and afterwards just slammed a seemingly fair amount of money onto the counter and left, blushing furiously. You would think that thanks to his dad’s obsession with Egyptian artefacts, Ryo would actually know at least some Arabic, but no such luck. He could only read hieroglyphs, which was hardly any help in a perfectly normal grocery store.

It was during that walk back from the store that he saw the doppelgänger again. He first caught a glimpse of it where it stood in the mouth of an alleyway, glowing faintly as it seemed to follow Ryo with its eyes. Ryo slowed his pace and swallowed, his throat dry with excitement. He hadn’t really dared to actually believe it before, but right there and then, looking at the luminescent quality to the pale figure in the darkness, there was not a doubt in his mind that the thing he was seeing was an actual apparition. An honest to god, real-life ghost. A spirit from the realm beyond. A visitor from beyond the grave. Ryo hadn’t even noticed that he had stopped walking and was staring openly at the doppelgänger, utterly transfixed. Then, the doppelgänger turned abruptly and disappeared into the shadows of the alley.

Ryo felt like his soul had transcended the boundaries of human capacities and had left his body to backflip into oblivion, and then suddenly came crashing back down to make him aware that he had apparently dropped his shopping bags onto the ground and was now standing in the exact spot the doppelgänger had previously occupied. He peered curiously into the darkness.  _If this were a book, this would be where my grand adventure begins_ , he mused as he considered his options. Going ghost hunting at night in a town where half the streetlights didn’t even work and where he had limited local knowledge and resources had never sounded this tempting before. On the other hand… he was really looking forward to tasting that bizarre ice cream flavour he’d bought. He turned to sigh wistfully at the shopping bags, before looking back into the alley. From this close, it actually looked kind of unsanitary. And there was definitely no ice cream in there. He hopped from one foot to the other, largely decided but still unhappy with the outcome. With an enormous feat of self-control, he turned his back to the dark alley, picked up his bags and ran back to the apartment before he could change his mind.

During the days that followed, each one with no sighting of the doppelgänger, Ryo found himself regretting his decision more and more. What if he  _had_ followed the apparition into the alley? What would he have found? What would he have experienced? He kicked at a pebble and swung the shopping bag a little extra, so lost in thought that he never saw the pale figure watching him from behind a corner.

“Ooooh, is that him!?”

The figure startled at the shout and frowned grumpily at the boy who was suddenly hanging off his neck. “Malik, what part of ‘be quiet’ don’t you understand?”

Malik just laughed, taking care not to drop the lollipop hanging precariously from his mouth. “Chill out, it’s not like he’ll hear us in the middle of the  _TOWN MARKET!_ ” He almost roared the last words, which were immediately drowned out by the cacophony of hundreds of people buying and selling stuff all over the street, and shouting while they did it.

A mess of differently coloured spikes only barely passing for a hairdo suddenly dove out of the throng of people, and Atem grinned up at them. “You were right, Rami, he looks just like you!”

“Told you so”, Rami replied and craned his neck to try and spot his body double in the thick crowd, but quickly gave up.

“Dude, this is so weird”. Malik’s lollipop clicked against his teeth as he spoke. “You sure you don’t have any siblings you don’t know about?” He gave a sudden gasp and hugged Rami’s neck even tighter while excitedly jumping up and down. “Oh my gods, what if you have like, a secret twin?!” His tone became somber as he dramatically leaned back with a hand to his forehead. “Alas, such was the sad tale of the two brothers; separated at birth, destined to know naught of the other’s existence”.

Rami snorted out a laugh while Atem shook his head. “No way! They can’t be related, the other one was waaay too cute!” He laughed and ducked away from the hand that came sweeping down to bring even more chaos unto the impossible situation on his head. He squeaked as Rami rerouted his hands to catch him in a merciless headlock and then proceeded to muss up his hair with his other hand.

Malik clung onto Rami again, for once deciding not to use their superior height to force Atem into giggling submission. “But seriously, you  _gotta_ talk to him! This is like, the coolest thing that’s happened in this town since forever! Who knows, maybe you’ll become friends!”

Rami looked about to protest when Atem spoke up, still enveloped in the headlock. “He’s new here, maybe he doesn’t have any friends yet”.

They all contemplated this in silence for a while.

“... Maybe we should all try to talk to him?” Malik suggested. “Being the new kid can’t be much fun”.

“Yeah, and his eyeliner was like, so symmetrical?” Atem added, sounding flabbergasted. “I wanna know how he does it!”

They all gave thoughtful nods at this vital piece of information. Symmetrical eyeliner was a sign of as close to a distinguished individual that could be found around their own age, and was not a skill that ought to be overlooked. They shared a grin and took off at a run down an alleyway, determined to corner their soon-to-be friend sooner rather than later.


	2. The Poltergeist

Atem leaned back against the backrest of the sofa, kicking his feet with boredom. Despite their best efforts, they had lost sight of the Rami clone, and after a good half hour of searching, they decided to give up for the day. Atem sighed in the silence, bothered by the unusual atmosphere. “Sooo, got any plans for tonight?”

“Get high”, came Malik’s unenthusiastic reply from where he was curled up over the armrest, and Atem snorted.

“Steal a car”, Rami muttered and stretched his legs further across Atem’s lap as Atem snorted a laugh.

“Drive said stolen car while high”, Malik winked with a grin.

“Outrun the police in said stolen car while high”, Rami added with a lazy laugh.

“Outrun the police in said stolen car while high, then get caught by the special anti-drugs forces and thrown in jail where I meet a hunk of a man who I help break out and then we get married and open a kindergarten for kittens”. Malik was giggling before he even got halfway through the sentence.

“A kittergarten”, Rami offered, and they all broke into near hysterical laughter.

Drying his tears, Atem sat up straighter again. “No but seriously, you guys busy? ‘Cause I got like, the best thing ever”.

Their interest piqued, Rami and Malik looked expectantly at Atem’s secretive grin. “What?” they asked in unison.

Atem made a show of looking around the room before leaning in conspiratorially. Rami and Malik both leaned in too until they were huddled tightly together, and Atem gave them a sly smirk. “Did you know there’s a new digging spot outside town?” He grinned evilly. “Let’s wreck it”.

~~

By ‘wreck it’, Atem actually meant something a lot closer to ‘hinder’ or ‘inconvenience’, which was a proud tradition among youngsters with too much time on their hands. Sneaking onto archaeological digging sites and pulling plugs and hiding tools was a special kind of adrenaline-filled fun that was only available during the select periods when there was actually a dig going on, and also only worked once or twice with the same crew. In other words, this was an exclusive event that needed to be savoured and exploited before anyone else decided to give it a go.

With this in mind, the three of them had grabbed their regular gear, including - but not limited to - empty metal cans, chains, red paint, and flashlights. Getting onto the digging site proved to be no problem, as usual. Seriously, would it hurt to at least place a guard by the door to sneak past? Just for the excitement of it, if nothing else. They quickly checked the layout of the place, agreed on who would go where and do what, and then the haunting began.

~~

Ryo jumped as the lights suddenly went out. He blinked slowly in the darkness, sighing as everyone started cursing and stomping around to find their torches.  _ And they call themselves archaeologists _ , he thought as he retrieved a torch from his bag to aid them in their search. Just then, he thought he saw something move in the corner of his eye. Curious, he shone the light of his torch around the area where he had spotted the movement, but there was nothing to be seen. He squinted as the lights came back on, and heard someone conclude that the main cable must’ve been plugged in improperly. Then came a heated discussion about who had plugged it in in the first place, followed by another heated discussion about borrowing tools without returning them to the right place. Ryo only listened with half an ear; he had homework to catch up on.

About ten minutes had passed when the lights went out again. The adults cursed even louder this time and stomped off to plug in the main cable again. A loud crash at the other end of the site made Ryo’s head turn instinctively, and several of the archaeologists pointed their torches toward the source of the sound. A barrel had toppled over, leaking something red onto the ground. The ones closest to the barrel sighed and straightened it up again, trying to dry at least some of the red liquid off the ground. A crash at the other corner of the site made the torches turn to light up a couple of overturned stools.

That was when they heard the horrible groaning sound coming from one of the tunnels leading from the chamber. It sounded like an animal in pain, and was punctuated by short howling sounds that sent a chill down Ryo’s spine. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound human. Then, there came the sound of something heavy dropping onto the ground, and then something - presumably that same something - being dragged over the uneven stone floor. Ryo spun on the spot, trying to figure out which sound was coming from where, when movement caught his eye again. He shone his torch and could just catch a glimpse of something bright white disappearing behind the corner.

His breath quickened with excitement. A ghost, it had to be! Possibly a poltergeist, or maybe just an uneasy spirit looking for attention. Either way, it was going to get a lot of attention very soon. Ryo smirked and secured his bag on his shoulder and his torch in his pocket before he sprinted into the tunnel in pursuit of the poltergeist.

At first, he could simply follow the sound of metal scraping against stone, but after a while the scraping stopped and was replaced by a clinking noise and… thumping feet? Wait. Was whatever it was… trying to get away from him? Ryo set his face into a determined scowl. As if he would let it. He quickened his pace even more, rushing through the maze of intertwining tunnels too quickly to even try to memorise the way, until he turned a corner and could finally see the white figure in front of him. Giddy with the sweet smell of victory, he sped up even more.

Then, as if in slow motion, he felt his foot slip and he lost his balance, his momentum carrying him forward to collide with the back of the poltergeist. Slightly confused, but ultimately thankful for the definite solidity of the ghost, Ryo wrapped his arms around what would ultimately become the only thing between him and a very rough collision with the stone floor.

They landed with what sounded like an almighty boom and an echoing rattle in the confined dark, followed by a loud voice. “ _ Ow! _ Dude, what the fuck!?”

Okay. That was not how Ryo had imagined that his first verbal contact with a spirit would go down. At all.

Scrambling to retrieve his torch from his pocket, he finally got hold of it and clicked it on. In the light from the torch, Ryo found himself straddling none other than his doppelgänger, who was now sporting a scrape on his cheek and what looked like the beginning of an impressively large bruise on his arm.

The doppelgänger squinted at the light. “Hey, turn that off!” it demanded and wrestled the torch from Ryo’s loose grip to shine it as his face instead. Then it breathed in dramatically. “It’s you!”

Ryo was speechless, reclaiming his torch to shine it at his doppelgänger again. “... You’re… not a ghost…” he said to fill the silence and give himself more time to think.

His human cushion snorted. “No shit!”

Ryo looked at his doppelgänger’s affronted expression, and Rami looked at his body double’s utterly confused face, and they both broke into laughter that bounced between the walls of the stone corridor.

After a while, the laughter simmered down into giggling, and Ryo found a hand being thrust in his face.

“Rami”.

Ryo looked at the grinning face beneath him and grabbed the extended hand without hesitation. “Ryo”. They both released the other’s hand simultaneously and fist bumped, and Ryo decided that this was his new favourite way to make friends. Then his eyes narrowed. “Wait a second. You speak English?”


	3. Ghoul Kids

Ryo anxiously tucked his hair behind his ear, realised that his hair was essentially what was protecting his shoulders from the sun, and smoothed it down again. He glanced at his watch. He had been waiting for the excruciating amount of time known as… about three minutes. He frowned at the watch. Surely it had been longer than that? Well, he did make sure not to get there too early. He’d look silly just standing around in the exact same spot, and after last night’s encounter, that was the last thing he wanted. But it was all cool, and he was so very chill. After all, he was just meeting the friends of his doppelg- … Rami, who seemed like he belonged in the Cool Kids category. So logically, his friends should hold that same calibre of Coolness. Ryo wet his lips nervously. He’d always been less of a Cool Kid and more of a… well, nerd, to put it mildly. As such, he had no idea how to properly approach an actual Cool Kid, and oh no, he was actually incredibly nervous.

The arm that was suddenly slung around his shoulders made his entire being jump, and he whipped his head around to meet Rami’s grin up close.

“Hey”.

Ryo tried to respond, but his tongue seemed to be glued in position. “... Yeah”, he managed in a slightly too strained voice.

Rami seemed to think nothing of it as he started to guide Ryo across the plaza. “Yeah, so, basically I’m gonna show you to Atem’s place, 'cause that’s where we usually hang out. It's a bit far and traffic’s a mess, so I thought I’d show you a shortcut. Keep track or you might get lost”. He winked, and Ryo had no idea if he was joking or not.

They entered an alleyway crammed between two shops, and Ryo very quickly realised that no, Rami had not been joking. Ryo tried to keep count of the turns and look for landmarks, but quickly lost count and instead dedicated himself to listening to Rami’s neverending prattle about the places and things they walked past. After four near-death experiences at three crossings, one underground pedestrian tunnel in which Rami proudly pointed out his and his friends' works in the clutter of graffiti, several trips up and down ladders, a couple of probably illegal jumps between rooftops, and too many narrow alleyways to keep count of, Rami finally pulled Ryo out onto what might easily have been the biggest lawn Ryo had ever seen.

The contrast was so striking that Ryo felt as though he was having another heat stroke. When he collected himself, he realised that they had actually entered through a hole in a very big stone wall and were walking across a very well-manicured lawn toward a building so very big that it may as well be a palace.

“Uh”, he said, starstruck by the glorious abode looming above them. “Should we… I mean… isn’t this… aren’t we… trespassing?” Ryo couldn’t even begin to fathom the fine for trespassing in this kind of place, and there was only so much he was willing to do in the name of taking a shortcut.

Rami looked back over his shoulder and grinned. “It’s not trespassing if you’re invited”. He completely ignored the main entrance and instead stopped at the corner of the building, moved some branches of a large bush and grabbed the handle to a very well hidden door. “And I’m always invited”. He grinned and went to pull the door open.

Only, the door didn’t budge. He tugged at the handle a couple more times before rolling his eyes and giving the door a few quick kicks, shouting something in Arabic.

A shuffling sound was heard from inside, as well as the unmistakable sound of badly muffled laughing. “ _Password?_ ” came a voice from just behind the door, and Rami snorted.

“Since when do we have a password?”

“ _Correct!!_ ” The door swung open, and they were greeted by the sight of a big smile. “Hiya!”

Ryo felt the urge to shade his eyes with a hand to protect them from the dazzling quality of that smile. He settled for squinting at the positively radiant being in front of them. Impossibly smooth skin topped off with strikingly light hair that poured silkily past his shoulders, pulling Ryo’s attention to his purple eyes accented by a - quite frankly - killer eyeliner job. No doubt this individual belonged to a distinguished enough family to reside in such an extravagant abode. Ryo felt like he should take a bow or kneel or something.

Instead, he was pulled through the doorway by this embodiment of sunshine, and enveloped in a hug. “Hi! I’m Malik, nice to finally meet you!”

Ryo had just enough time to remember that Malik was not the name of the person who supposedly lived here, before Malik turned to call into the room. “Yo, Atem, come here and say hi to Ryo!”

Movement caught Ryo’s eye, and he was left staring at a boy who looked like whatever the exact opposite of an inhabitant of this sort of house should look like. His dark clothes almost made his body seem part of the black leather couch he was currently draped over, and his hair was meticulously ordered into blonde, red and black spikes. Ryo found himself being studied by heavily contoured eyes before an arm, covered in studded bracelets, lifted to wave casually at him. “Hey”.

Rami snorted and gave Ryo’s shoulder a playful nudge. “Don’t let him trick you, he’s real excited to meetcha”. He grinned over at Atem, who lazily threw his hands into the air in mock resignation.

“Okay, fine, the jig’s up, you got me”. He removed his feet from the backrest to assume an upright position and smiled excitedly, fixing Ryo with a wide-eyed look. “Now tell me, did I look cool? I’m tryin’ to fix my image, did I look dark and brooding but also strangely alluring and inexplicably attractive?”

Ryo was at a total loss for words. Thankfully, he didn’t have to come up with a response, because Rami swaggered across the room and threw himself on his back on the sofa, legs across Atem’s lap. “You look like someone who’s trying too hard”, he said and laughed at Atem’s affronted face.

Malik giggled and nestled in beside Atem, and Ryo took the opportunity to take in his surroundings. It looked like a completely stereotypic basement reserved for teenagers, dark and cramped. A couple of cluttered tables stood between the couch and the wall, and Ryo observed that the tattered old sofa seemed to be the only thing worth sitting on. Only, it seemed quite full already…

As if he could read his thoughts, Atem frowned and shoved at Rami’s legs. “Rami, make room”.

Rami rolled his eyes. “As you wish, your highness”, he said mockingly, which earned him a shove to the shoulder, before he complied and sat up, leaving an empty spot between himself and the armrest.

Ryo thankfully sat down, wincing inwardly as the leather creaked impossibly loudly in the cramped space. He looked over at the others, who were already chatting away, and wondered what the hell he was doing here, anyway. With nothing to add to the current conversation, Ryo found himself watching Rami. Looking at Rami felt like looking at his own reflection, and Ryo marvelled at how alike they really looked. Rami seemed to be a bit paler, but otherwise, they were identical. They had the exact same nose and jawline, the same natural unruliness to their hair, and were even around the same height. Wait, wasn’t this a thing? People from around the world who looked like twins but weren’t even remotely related? Or maybe they were actually distant relatives? Ryo cocked his head in thought. “Where are you from?”

Rami, Atem and Malik all turned to look at him, putting their conversation on hold. Rami realised that Ryo had spoken to him specifically, and waved his hand in a general direction. “I’m from over that way, not too far off, really”.

“No, I mean…” Ryo spoke without thinking, and now had no choice but to follow through, “... where are you _from?_ ”

The silence that followed caught Ryo completely off guard, and he immediately realised that he had hit a sore point. The silence went on for just a bit too long, but just as Ryo was about to make a hasty exit, Rami smiled.

“Oh yeah, the ‘me being really pale’ thing, right?” He shrugged. “Basically, I’m albino”, he said with an unnaturally even tone. “Egyptian, born and raised, but with no melanin”.

Ryo wanted to slap himself. Nicely done. Way to go about making friends. “Oh”, he managed, staring down at his fidgeting hands. “... Sorry, I… didn’t mean to be rude”.

Rami waved a nonchalant hand. “Nah, ‘s okay. You’re like, the least rude person who’s asked”.

“I think you mean ‘most polite’”, Atem grinned and ducked away from Rami’s hand as it came surging towards his hair.

“If I wanted you to diss my English, I’d ask you to”.

Endlessly thankful for the change of subject, Ryo gladly let the others banter as he mentally shrugged off his residual shame to let it haunt him another time. To distract himself, he let his eyes sweep across the room again.

The shelves were so cluttered that he could barely make out individual objects in the dim lighting, as were the tables scattered around the room. Then there was the far corner of the room; almost completely dark and absolutely stuffed with unidentifiable objects. Ryo suspected that that was the place where all forgotten and unwanted things ended up sooner or later.

Last of all, he tried to make sense of the clutter on the coffee table in front of the sofa. An empty soda can, an opened bag of chips, dozens of pencils, and several precariously balancing piles of books and papers. Ryo squinted as he spotted something behind one of the piles and leaned to the side to get a better view. He almost gasped at the sight of three jars with different-coloured dice. He grabbed the nearest one and turned it over, happily noting that yes, they were, in fact, _those_ kinds of dice. All shame forgotten, he turned to the others with sparkling eyes. “You guys play DnD?”

Three mouths slammed shut and three heads whipped about to stare at him. The sudden silence made Ryo think that he may have blasphemed by touching one of their sacred jars, but then Malik whooped and fistpumped.

"I called it!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "I told ya! You didn't believe me, but I was right!"

Rami rolled his eyes and leaned across Atem to shove at Malik, interrupting his victory dance. "Yeah yeah, you did great". He smirked when Malik shoved him back. Their eyes met, and that was the start of an epic catfight.

Atem straightened his back to look at Ryo over Rami's head, ignoring the yelps and slapping sounds. "We just started a campaign set in like, ancient Egypt, basically",  he explained. Then his face lit up. "Hey, why don't you join?”

Ryo blinked. “... For real?”

“Sure!” Atem leaned closer and his face contorted into a pout filled with misery. “These guys _live_ to make me suffer. I need at least one competent player or my days as DM are over”.

Malik laughed and leaned back. “C’mon, Atem, don’t make us sound so bad. We _are_ competent”.

Atem turned to him with a deadpan look. “I wouldn’t call drinking the fuckin’ lava ‘competent’”.

Malik looked offended. “Hey, that was _one time!_ ”

“How many times do you think a person can drink lava?!”

Malik’s face warped into a self-satisfied smile and he crossed his arms defiantly. “Well, what do you know of dwarf biology? Maybe they drink lava for breakfast”.

Atem let his face thump dramatically into his palm. “For the last time; your character is _not_ a dwarf. You can’t just change race whenever you feel like it”.

Rami leaned closer to Ryo while Atem and Malik continued their bantering in Arabic. “He wants us to finish the story, so we do stupid things to see how he’ll stop us from dying. It’s fun, you should try it”. Rami winked at Ryo, who felt a sort of tingling sensation go through him.

He smiled back. “Yeah, maybe I will”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get it? Cool kids but like... a ghost pun.......


End file.
